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Managing the Modern Workplace, July 16, 2019
A couple of months ago, I discussed
whether a company could terminate an employee who had dyed her hair pink. My
conclusion was that employers could legally — at least for now — prohibit
employees from having pink hair although I noted that employers were
increasingly reconsidering prohibitions on hair color, tattoos and certain
piercings which might have the effect of eliminating talented younger
candidates from the applicant pool.
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Earlier this month, the United Kingdom (“UK”) indicated that it is considering rules to require disclosure of certain climate-related risks. On July 2, the government released its Green Finance Strategy, which discusses the UK’s strategy for accomplishing its goals of net zero emissions by 2050.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, July 11, 2019
As emojis have morphed from a cute novelty into a staple element of business communication, they have begun to pose liability risks to companies. Many of these risks stem from the fact that emojis lack universal definitions, can have multiple — often subjective — meanings, and look different on different messaging platforms.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, July 9, 2019
“The Dodgers are the Uber of baseball,” wrote Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci in the magazine’s February 11, 2019 issue. He meant that the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have represented the National League in the World Series the last two seasons, have achieved remarkable success by borrowing the idea of short-term contracts from the gig economy.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, July 3, 2019
“I have gone to jail for what I have said.” That’s what I was recently told by a lawyer from another country when he received a call from a reporter asking him to comment on a recent decision from one of his country’s courts. When I asked him how careful he had to be with what he said, he described his time spent in jail for statements he has made.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, July 2, 2019
Last year, when I wrote about the new laws that had been passed by the New York State Assembly to combat sexual harassment, I was largely complimentary. After all, requiring employers to provide interactive training in harassment training was something that I had been recommending since I became an employment lawyer many years ago.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, June 27, 2019
Tomorrow, June 28, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riot where gay men and lesbians fought back during a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Because this blog is about the workplace, however, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about how far American employers, including my own law firm, have come during my lifetime in protecting the rights of LGBTQ workers, and to talk about one of my heroes of the LGBTQ movement.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, June 25, 2019
Most employers mandating arbitration agreements as a
condition of employment do not intend to prevent employees from filing unfair
labor charges with the National Labor Relations Board.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, June 20, 2019
In late May, the New York Times
ran a grim story entitled “Rats are Taking Over New York City,” talking about
the onslaught of rats in New York and other major cities. In fact, a record 17,353
rat sightings had been reported to the city hotline in the last year.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, June 18, 2019
For public companies, whenever there is a change in leadership for whatever reason, an issue that must be addressed is whether the company needs to make a public filing disclosing the change. The company should evaluate the disclosure both from a regulatory compliance standpoint and an investor relations standpoint, carefully considering both the tone and content of the disclosure.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, June 13, 2019
When you are an employment lawyer who represents management,
most of your clients are businesses that have human resources departments. From
time to time, however, I am cornered by friends at ball games or cocktail
parties who have questions about the individual caretakers who assist them in
managing their house, children, and garden, or, for example, the home health
aides who might take care of their parents.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, June 11, 2019
On June 3, 2019, in Fort Bend County v. Davis, the Supreme Court held that federal courts can hear discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, even if the worker alleging discrimination did not bring those claims first to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) or an equivalent state-level workplace discrimination body.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, June 6, 2019
If you’ve never heard of a heat policy, you might not think that it
could be relevant to your company. But with
the rapidly evolving world of human rights law, you may need to think again if
your employees, or the workers within your supply chains at home or abroad, operate
in high-temperature environments.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, June 4, 2019
We are all concerned when we send an employee to a location where we know that the work circumstances and living conditions may not be the safest. However, we should also be concerned about those expatriates who have been working in locations that were considered safe when they were first given the foreign assignment.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, May 30, 2019
The last time a client of mine received a “No-Match” letter was in 2012, so I was somewhat surprised when multiple clients received letters from the Social Security Administration in only the last few weeks. Apparently, my clients were not alone.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, May 28, 2019
Listen to your gut when an employee who had access to confidential information leaves your company. Were they vague on their next steps? Is there a chance they’re going to work for a competitive venture?
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Managing the Modern Workplace, May 23, 2019
My disappointment with the Game of Thrones’ finale on Sunday night was greatly alleviated by the news on Monday morning that a bill amending the Texas anti-SLAPP law is on its way to the governor’s office. This amendment to the Texas Citizens Participation Act (the anti-SLAPP law) – should it be signed into law by Gov. Abbott – explicitly says that the TCPA does not apply to a legal action arising from an employer-employee relationship (among other relationships) that seeks to recover for trade secrets misappropriation, or seeks to enforce a non-compete or non-disparagement agreement.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, May 21, 2019
While employment lawyers like myself — and the EEOC — have long cautioned employees against automatically asking job applicants about their criminal history, few companies would think twice (absent advice of learned counsel) about asking “Have you ever been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor?” on their standard job application forms.
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Managing the Modern Workplace, May 16, 2019
The SEC recently sought to have Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Inc., held in contempt because Musk tweeted that “Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019,” followed by a second tweet in which he wrote “Meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week. Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.”
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Managing the Modern Workplace, May 14, 2019
The battle over the gig economy continues on the West Coast. The Ninth Circuit in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, Inc., held that the California Supreme Court’s test to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee, has retroactive effect.
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